Italy has 568 superyachts on order or under construction, 52 per cent of the world’s total. Confindustria Nautica put the figure at the head of its annual report on the industry, presented in Genoa on Wednesday 30 September, on the eve of the 66th Genoa International Boat Show, together with a record turnover of 8.72 billion euros for 2025 and record exports of 4.4 billion. Laid end to end, the Italian yachts in build would stretch more than 22 kilometres, with an average length of 39 metres, according to Boat International’s Global Order Book, the source of the count. The picture is not uniform, and the association itself says small boats have had a second difficult year. But by number of yachts, Italy builds more superyachts than every other country combined.
8.72 billion euros, and 90 per cent exported
The report, La Nautica in Cifre, is prepared by Confindustria Nautica’s research office with Fondazione Edison and IULM COMAR. Its figures for 2025 are these. Total turnover of boats, accessories and engines reached 8.72 billion euros, up 1.4 per cent from 8.60 billion and a new all-time high. The industry contributed 7.51 billion euros to Italian GDP. National boatbuilding output was 5.47 billion, up 0.5 per cent, with inboard boats up 1.3 per cent, and exports set a record at 4.4 billion, up 2.6 per cent, with 90 per cent of boatbuilding output sold abroad; Italy’s share of world exports is 21.3 per cent. Accessories and equipment turned over 2.03 billion. Direct employment rose 3 per cent to 32,420, and the association counts about 170,000 jobs across the whole supply chain. Almost 90 per cent of boatbuilding turnover comes from five territorial clusters, and the upper Mediterranean, Liguria and Tuscany, accounts for more than half. The full release is in Italian.
568 yachts and 22 kilometres of hulls
The superyacht figure comes from Boat International’s Global Order Book 2026, a snapshot of yachts of 24 metres and over on order or in build on 1 September 2025. Worldwide it counts 1,093 projects, down 3.95 per cent on the previous year. Italy has 568 of them, against 141 in Turkey, 66 in the Netherlands, 61 in Taiwan and 55 in the United Kingdom. Its share has grown: a year earlier Italy counted 572 of 1,138, just over half. The averages tell a second story. Italian yachts in build average 39.3 metres, Dutch ones 65.8 metres, and Germany’s 18 projects average 100 metres. Italy builds the most yachts. Northern Europe builds many of the largest.
The yards behind the number
Two Italian groups lead the world list by total length in build. Azimut-Benetti is first for the 26th year, with 163 projects and 5,924 metres, and Sanlorenzo second, with 130 projects and 4,698 metres, a figure that includes Nautor Swan. The Italian Sea Group is fifth, Overmarine seventh and Palumbo Superyachts ninth, with Baglietto eleventh, Cantiere delle Marche seventeenth and Tankoa eighteenth. One large Italian builder is missing from the tables. Boat International says the Ferretti Group, with Riva, Pershing, Custom Line, CRN, Wally and Itama, would hold third place if its figures were available, and counts its yachts in Italy’s total. Many of these yards are on the quays in Genoa this week, as set out in our guide to the show’s biggest yachts.
“Since the start of the new millennium, Italian exports of pleasure boats have grown from about 0.8 to 4.4 billion euros, more than fivefold.” Marco Fortis, director and vice-president of Fondazione Edison, in Genoa on 30 September 2026, translated from the Italian.
Strong at the top, softer below
The association does not hide the contrast. Its president, Piero Formenti, said in Genoa that after years of double-digit growth across the board, the segments now move at different speeds: leadership at the top end and the industry’s international reach remain its strengths, while small boats feel more of the uncertainty that weighs on the middle class worldwide. Stefano Pagani Isnardi, who directs the research office, said the small-boat industry had contracted significantly for the second year running, while Italian production stays strongly positioned at the top end, in boatbuilding and in equipment for superyachts. Employment is the other good number. Direct staff grew by 3 per cent, to more than 32,000.
Genoa opens its quays
The figures set the tone for the 66th Genoa International Boat Show, which opens on Thursday 1 October and runs until Tuesday 6 October at the Waterfront di Levante. The organisers announced more than 1,000 boats, 215 new products and exhibitors from 45 countries, an in-water layout 4 per cent larger than in 2025, and a 14.1 per cent rise in the average size of the three largest boats in each segment. A new area on Quay H, Living Made in Italy, is reserved for Italian yachts over 24 metres and has drawn superyachts between 35 and 50 metres. The Design Innovation Award names its winners on Friday 2 October. The dates and the premieres are in our preview of the show.
The Luxury.it perspective
Italy’s 52 per cent is a number about numbers. By count, Italian yards build more superyachts than the rest of the world together; by length, the share is about half, because the Dutch and German yards build fewer, larger yachts. Both facts are good news for buyers. A client who wants a 40-metre yacht can choose among dozens of Italian builders, and see many of them on the quays of Genoa until Tuesday. The softer figures for small boats are the other half of the report, and the association has been candid about them. For the luxury market, the message from Genoa is simple: the order book is long, and more than half of it is Italian.
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